{"id":1113957,"date":"2026-07-27T10:04:29","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T10:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1113957\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T10:04:29","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T10:04:29","slug":"gianni-infantino-hits-back-at-world-cup-critics-you-were-consumed-by-hate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1113957\/","title":{"rendered":"Gianni Infantino hits back at World Cup critics: ‘You were consumed by hate’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fifa president Gianni \u2060Infantino has hit back at critics of the World Cup, accusing \u2060them of spreading hate and false narratives while also hailing \u200bthe tournament as a huge success.<\/p>\n

In an open letter published on social media on Monday, Infantino, \u206056, said detractors had overlooked the joy and togetherness experienced by millions of fans around the world who witnessed the tournament, won by Spain and staged across the United States, Canada and Mexico<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou were so consumed by hate \u2060and criticism that you missed it all,\u201d he said. \u201cTo those behind their pens and papers, behind their \u200bscreens \u2060spreading hate and false rumours, I want \u200cto say that while you are sitting behind, we at Fifa are on the front lines organising, \u200bworking hard, and delivering the best show in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe experienced no violence, no incidents, 100 per cent safety and security, only joy and happiness!\u201d<\/p>\n

Fans at 2026 World Cup \u2013 in pictures <\/b><\/p>\n

Fifa faced criticism over a number of issues during the tournament, including debate over US visa restrictions<\/a> affecting supporters and officials from several countries and concerns involving teams from conflict-hit regions.<\/p>\n

Infantino’s letter also followed scrutiny of Fifa’s handling of the Folarin Balogun disciplinary case and the decision to suspend the automatic one-match ban imposed on him after his red card against Bosnia and Herzegovina following the intervention of US President Donald Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Officiating decisions in Argentina’s match against Egypt<\/a> also generated widespread debate among fans and pundits.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Did refereeing cost Egypt a World Cup upset?<\/p>\n

Though Infantino did not refer to specific cases, he argued that many of the refereeing and disciplinary decisions criticised during the tournament were commonplace in various competitions worldwide.<\/p>\n

\u201cPotentially mistaken red or yellow cards or subsequent decisions \u200bnot to ban players in certain situations are routine and widely accepted in \u200csome of the biggest leagues worldwide,\u201d he \u2060added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s curious that the same countries employing these \u200bpractices are the ones criticising.\u201d<\/p>\n

Infantino pointed to the participation of countries facing political \u200btensions, domestic crisis \u200cand domestic health challenges as evidence of football’s ability to transcend divisions.<\/p>\n

While Iran’s participation came against the backdrop of \u2060conflict with the US, issues surrounding Haiti’s domestic crisis and the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic \u2060Republic of Congo also drew attention to visa and travel restrictions.<\/p>\n

Somali World Cup referee Omar Artan<\/a> was barred from entering the US despite having a valid visa. \u201cIran entered the United States without incident or conflict. The Iranian team received visas to enter because football is about peace. It’s not about \u200bpolitics,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCountries facing serious health issues or other challenges were granted visas. When football brought Haiti to the world, a country that many cannot or choose not to visit, it might be time to set aside your pens and keyboards and show some respect to the teams that played.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fifa president Gianni \u2060Infantino has hit back at critics of the World Cup, accusing \u2060them of spreading hate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1113958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,1512,104,14557,1715,1426,93214],"class_list":["post-1113957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-fifa","tag-spain","tag-sport-team","tag-standard","tag-story","tag-world-cup-2026"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1113957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1113957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1113957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1113958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1113957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1113957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1113957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}